In case you missed it, Congressman Greg Walden has announced he will hold 16 town hall meetings around Oregon Congressional District 2, the first such events since April of 2017. In 2017 his press release said that he is “proud to hold regular town hall meetings in all 20 counties in our vast district. They are another great way for me to update my ‘to-do’ list to take back to the nation’s capital.” But after these meetings, where Walden expressed he was there to listen, Walden went into hiding. The only public viewing of this congressman was in radio ads, tv ads, and billboards he spread around the district while running for another term of office.
The “Where’s Walden” mantra was heard in all corners of the large district from Indivisible groups because requests for town hall meetings were met with a shrug from Walden’s staff. The challenge for debates from his opponent, Jamie Mcleod-Skinner was sidelined by Walden with one finally held in-studio. That was it.
Now, two years later Walden has announced a round of town hall meetings, where he states, “I look forward to getting together with people on the ground and hearing your concerns and ideas and suggestions about this new session of Congress, and giving you an update on the things we’ve accomplished and what we want to work on going forward.”
Really? What changed? It’s the beginning of a new term and far away from the next election cycle? A much narrower margin of victory in 2018 and it is time to “listen”? A Democratic controlled House?
Interestingly enough, during the opening of the 116th Congress Walden said, “I come here today with a very simple request and in the spirit of this new Congress and a fresh start let us come together and make sure that those Americans with pre-existing health conditions are protected - period. But that can only happen if the new Democratic majority allows it.” Laughable because Walden helped craft a controversial GOP health care bill that would have ended coverage for some 24 million Americans, including of course, pre-existing conditions.
Now is the time to ask questions of Congressman Walden, in public.
He has been missing for quite some time and certainly has some explaining to do.
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